HARTFORD, Conn. _ There are good days for West Tarricone. Days when she can laugh and live like any other 9-year-old. Days when she can play with her brother, Blake, and watch "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on her iPad.
But there are also bad days. Days when her body weathers 100 seizures. Days when it has closer to 1,000 _ some lasting more than 90 minutes.
Lately, she's been having more good days thanks to Connecticut's new experiment with medical marijuana.
Doctors diagnosed West just after her first birthday, not long after her mother Cara Tarricone noticed she had been jerking oddly. Two weeks before they learned West had intractable epilepsy, she had a grand mal seizure.
In the years since, West has tried a battery of nearly two dozen medicines, but just one has brought her some comfort _ cannabis oil, which is derived from the marijuana plant.
"Without it, we'd be in the hospital, we'd just live there because we'd have to be controlling bigger seizures all the time," Tarricone said.
West takes the cannabis oil daily, in addition to four pharmaceutical medications. Tarricone says she's "pleased" with the daily medication, and has seen a decrease in some seizure activity.
But the medicine's most profound effect comes when West's seizures flare beyond control. When that occurs, Tarricone rubs a different concentration of the oil into her daughter's gums as a "rescue medicine." Within a minute, the more intense symptoms subside. Her tightened muscles slacken. Her breathing regulates.
Before the oil, the family had to rely on pharmaceutical rescue medicines. When they didn't show signs of working right away, Tarricone would have to call for an ambulance.
During intense seizures, they usually didn't work.
"I said immediately, this is a natural option, and I want this for my child," Tarricone said. "Something that could eliminate a lot of extra pharmaceutical medication in her system and be so simple and straightforward? This is something we needed for our daughter."
The state legislature passed a bill approving cannabis as a palliative treatment for childhood seizure patients in May 2016, but the medicine didn't become available until October, when the law went into effect.
The Tarricones received their first batch for West in March. She is currently one of fewer than 50 children in Connecticut utilizing the medicine, according to the state Department of Consumer Protection.
Getting the medicine was a victory for the family, one of the more vocal advocates for legalizing cannabis oil.
And as they begin using it, they hope their story inspires a greater understanding and wider acceptance of a substance that could improve the lives of other children.
